[groff] fonts & Unicode support (was Re: It'is time to modernise "groff")

[Gour]

On Wed, 8 Nov 2017 18:39:03 +0100
Ingo Schwarze <address@hidden> wrote:

> > Here I'd like to ask what has happened in the meantime in regard to
> > the groff's features and plans stated in the mission statement like
> > Knuth-Plass algorithmy for paragraph-based linebreaks, native
> > support for TrueType, Open Type, and other non-Type1 PostScript
> > fonts, and improving Unicode support ?    
> 
> Nothing.  Setting up a mission statement has little practical effect
> when no working time is available.

I understand...still wonder how does Unicode support look like *today*
in groff?

Neatroff's support is described as: "In Neatroff, input files and
characters, glyph names, ligatures, hyphenation patterns and
dictionary, as well as quoted escape sequence delimiters and arguments
of commands like .tr, .hc, .tc, .lc, .mc, and .fc are in UTF-8 encod-
ing" so I'm curious how is it Unicode support handled in groff?

Can one still use/combine character from different 'sets' or one is
limited to vectors covering only 256 characters as handled in the old
codepage/encodings solutions of which I got my fair-share in the past
being doomed to use non-ASCII character set?

Heirloom seems to have similar UTF-8 support, but, afaik, both are
missing mom package which is my primary reason to possibly use groff?


Sincerely,
Gour

-- 
An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery,
which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī,
such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does
not delight in them.

-- 
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment,
though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing
such engagements by experiencing a higher taste,
he is fixed in consciousness.